Streets of Islamic Cairo : a configuration of urban themes and patterns

Abstract

This study presents a closer look at a Muslim-built environment. It examines streets as one of the major structuring elements in a city. It traces the history and the physical development of three major streets in Medieval Cairo within the overall structure of the city at the end of each ruling dynasty. The hypothesis presented in this study is that streets in a Muslim city (Cairo) possessed some common themes and patterns that created for them a characteristic structure. The purpose of this study is to verify the existence of such a structure and to explore some of the implicit principles that may have governed its shaping The lessons learnt from the analysis of the street structure and its development, provide a better understanding of the history of a built environment and of the physical factors that shaped its urban form. Ultimately, it may be possible to generate from the study a general set of criteria ·which could identify the extent of traditionality in a given project. These rules could also assist urban designers in the formulation of design criteria extracted from the history of the built environment.